Conventional foldable cartons are well known and are used in a variety of applications. For example, the packaging industry utilizes a vast number of cartons in which numerous products are packaged for subsequent shipment. For certain fragile articles, such as bottles and the like, it is desirable to use shipping cartons containing interior partitions to prevent significant movement and breakage of the articles during shipment.
Such shipping cartons can be manufactured in either one or two pieces. The two-piece carton includes the carton itself and one or more separate dividers. Typically, assembly of the two-piece carton requires two pieces of equipment. The first piece of equipment constructs the carton while the second piece of equipment constructs the dividers. The dividers must then be inserted into the carton in order to form the completed carton. One problem with the two piece container is the ordering, inventorying, and matching wrapper blanks and divider blanks with one another. Another problem is that manufacturers of articles, such as plastic soda bottles, often ship empty bottles in the constructed carton to a bottler. The bottlers then turn the cartons upside-down to remove the empty bottles for entry into the filling line. With the two-piece carton, the separate dividers tend to slide out or become misaligned during this process.
Many products that are currently packaged in two-compartment boxes fit so tightly in the compartments that if the partition or spine that separates the two compartments is of four-wall construction it causes the container dimensions to be enlarged to the point that groups of these containers, when placed on a pallet, overhang the pallet. This detracts from their available strength and/or makes them fall out of compliance with product manufacturer's or retailer's dimensional specifications.
Accordingly, there is need to for a container having an integral interior partitions or spine wherein the container and the partition are constructed from a single blank using one piece of equipment and the partition has no more than a three-wall thickness.